Oops, I did it again

[Teho]

Did what you say? Well, I nearly named this thread "Looks like Christmas holiday came early this year", maybe that'll help you guess? In any case, I guess I should warn you that the following isn't very pleasant reading.

Yes, I've hurt myself pretty bad at work again. Funny, considering that it isn't long since last time it happened. Did it better too this time. To make a long story short, my right thumb is now shortened by about the length of the fingernail, and a tablesaw was involved. And same as last time, it was nobody's fault but my own. Yesterday I was splitting some boards on the saw, and was about to remove one of the pieces I'd cut off. It caught on the still spinning blade, and pulled my hand back sharply sending the thumb across the blade. It cut just at the root of the nail and into the bone, so not all the way through. However once I got to the emergency room it was clear that saw blades don't make very clean cuts. They generally make a mess of it to put it mildly. It had ruined the whole area from the middle of the nail and almost down to the joint. So while the fingertip was still largely whole minus the fingernail that had gone, the damaged area itself just didn't have anything left to fix. In the end the doctor cut some of the bone and finger away and simply used the tip to fold it back over the damaged area and stitched it on there, shortening the finger by that much. And that's really all there was to it.

Here is where I feel I have learned something about pain. I thought I knew about pain, but oh was I wrong. There actually wasn't much of it right after the accident, and once at the hospital I got local anaesthetics and a shot of morphine so didn't have a care in the world at that point. It was later in the evening, back at the rented cabin I was staying at. I'd been warned that it was going to ache a lot, due to having damaged the bone. And yes, the thing was aching something fierce, but I'd been given som painkillers to take. The box said 'no more than 4 per day'. At 3am, still awake due to to the finger's infernal throbbing, I was taking the ninth.

But today was even worse. I hadn't been allowed to drive home yesterday due to being on morphine, and the painkillers as well were too strong making it illegal to drive after taking them. So, if I wanted to get home today, that meant no more painkillers today before I get home. And I do not wish that trip on my worst enemy, seriously. The entire final hour the finger felt like it had been dipped in burning napalm. It is by far the worst pain I ever had to sit through. But, at least I'm home again now, and am munching painkillers and antibiotics and am thinking oh well, at least I have a few weeks leave coming.

So, aren't you guys wishing you had my job yet? :)

[Harrison]

OMG! :o Was this the same finger you has sown back on last time?

That is pretty bad, although it could have easily been even worse. You could of lost your whole hand or more. I can't imagine how much that must of hurt/is still hurting. I hope it starts to hurt less real soon.

Soon you are going to be charged danger money before being allowed anywhere near a construction site!

And this is seriously going to effect you game playing abilities! ;) And just as all the good games are starting to be released on the PS3 too!

[Teho]

Was this the same finger you has sown back on last time?

No, that was the index finger. Same hand though. Pretty crazy still, isn't it.


That is pretty bad, although it could have easily been even worse.

Definitely. Everyone is pretty much in agreement that once it happened, it actually couldn't have gone much better. As I said earlier, there is no such thing as a clean cut with a saw, if it's more than a scratch then it is always going to be fairly bad. So it went pretty well in the end when all things are considered.


And this is seriously going to effect you game playing abilities!

Well that is one of our greatest fears isn't it. Having a hand so damaged you can't operate a controller properly anymore. But once this has healed, I think there's plenty of thumb left so it shouldn't be a problem. But these first few weeks it seems there won't be too much gaming for me, I guess you're right about that. :)

[Demon Cleaner]

So, aren't you guys wishing you had my job yet?Hearing from you every 3-4 month, I think I'll keep mine, worst thing that could happen, is falling off the chair.

But this one was already a pain to read, I can only imagine the pain you had, and still have, but still, it's quite imaginable.

I hope the painkillers will do their job and you'll get better soon. As Harrison mentioned, this is a very bad injury if you plan to play some games.

But as Asami (Audition) already said: "Words can create lies, but pain can be trusted." Ah, that's sooo true.

[Harrison]

At least it was your right thumb, so you can still use the directional controls fine and could use your fingers for the buttons in most games. So your "prolonged" Christmas shouldn't go completely to waste.

Get well soon mate. And don't do it again!!! Seen the Pot Noodle advert? :lol:

[Sharingan]

Dude, you ought to audition for the next Hostel or (pardon the pun) Saw movie. Just reading your story made me feel the pain. Maybe you should consider wearing steel gloves at work?

Get better soon.

[Submeg]

Damn man....Seriously, I was wincing for you...that sounds absolutely terrible. I think maybe a change of job would be the best solution?

[Tiago]

OMG :o
Just to think about the finger and the saw....:sick:

I hope you're better now.
Can you work with gloves, or you dont have the same ability with them?

[Stephen Coates]

Sounds Nasty. I hope it gets better soon.

[Buleste]

I'm a newbie here so please forgive the question but Teho, is cutting off fingers a regular thing?? If so it sounds like a change of career is advised before you have to change your name to Stumpy or Lefty. It sounds a bit of an extreme way to get some time of work;). Hope everything gets better including your luck.

[toomanymikes]

Dude, that sounds amazingly bad! On the pluss side you now hold the rightfull title to 'most damaged CA member'. Wait, that sounds bad, possibly worse than what happened to your thumb! Hope it stops hurting soon so you can get back onto your PS3 - I was hoping for some cool death match tournos with you guys over the christmas hols!

[Teho]

I'm a newbie here so please forgive the question but Teho, is cutting off fingers a regular thing??

Actually, more regular than you'd think. Working at construction sites really isn't a safe business, even though people's safety is held in very high regard, at least here in Norway. Particularily here in Norway in fact, we're known for having some of the strictest safety codes there is. But still, a lot of things can go wrong, and you'll find that most workers have been in serious accidents in one form or other. And seeing people with half fingers isn't as uncommon as you'd think. There are two others I work with who's also shortened one or two fingers before (out of ~30 people in my department), and several if not most has had nasty cuts. The really serious accidents don't actually happen that often, of course. But I think it happens more often than people would like to admit.

About wearing gloves, we don't often do that because they'd mostly get in the way with most of the work we do. We do sometimes use thin cotton-gloves when handling things that we can't leave any stains on such as pre-fabricated ceiling and wall segments, but those aren't and were never meant to be protective. Now, I suppose I could've worn a pair of work-gloves while using the tablesaw, but would they really have helped in this case? Think about it, a pair of normal work-gloves are meant to prevent small cuts and splinters, not stop a running circular saw-blade. To do that they'd have to be chainmail or something, and even then I have my doubts. No, in the end it was my own god damn fault for not stopping the saw before removing the bit I'd cut off, which would've been the correct way to do it.

And don't worry toomanymikes, I'll be back on the PS3 soon enough. ;) The joint on the thumb still works, so it should be just fine in the end, only a bit shorter. I'm supposed to have the stitches removed in a week or so, and I guess I can't thumbwrestle with it immediately after that either, so it'll definitely be a few weeks though.

And thanks for all the good wishes, people. :)

[Harrison]

I would say wearing gloves could have made the accident a whole lot worse. The glove material would have got caught up in the saw teeth and pulled more of your had into the blade, as well as the fibres from the glove going into the wound.

I think the best thing you can do to protect your life is a refresher course in safety!

[Puni/Void]

Hi there, Teho!

I feel really sorry for you, and I hope that you will be better in the near future. Like they say in Norway, "du får ha god bedring, og jeg håper at alt vil ordne seg." It's terrible that you have had to major accidents like that. :(

Btw.. I noticed on QXL that you are bidding on a 040 card? Have you bought an Amiga 1200?

[J T]

Sweet jiminy! That sounds like a nasty injury to a sensitive area. I don't use serious power tools all that often but when I do I'm pretty careful because to be frank they scare me a bit.

I hope it settles down quickly....

[TiredOfLife]

Seriously mate, there must be other jobs for you.
Either switch or take the time to see what Dragon software for the PC does, you will be needing it.
Hope the pain clears soon.

[Teho]

Other jobs? I don't know. I'm not really qualified for much else. Well, maybe Demon's "job".. :rolleyes:

No seriously, it has crossed my mind and not just recently. But I've never given it serious thought. I mean, I'm finally in a very stable place now and those of you who know some of my earlier history ought to know how comfortable that is right now. I don't want to throw that away just yet. But on the other hand, I am your typical geek, and constuction sites are just about the last place I thought I was heading for 15 years ago. It isn't exactly where I feel most at home, I admit. ;)

So yeah, I've known for a long time that I don't intend to grow old in this profession. But a bit older still.

Pain is getting better now. I've not been on the computer at all these past few days because I've been trying to take a little less of the painkillers. So using a mouse and a keyboard hasn't been a comfortable thought lately. It's been a whole lot better today though, and the doctor thinks everything is coming along nicely. I'm seeing him every two days now to change the bandage and so he can check on the progress of the whole thing. So it looks like things would be improving if not for one thing. After having had the second very intriguing visit to the toilet in a short time back on saturday, I looked closer at the description of the antibiotics I'm taking. Side-effects include: diarrhoea. Oh great. What a fun week this will turn out to be. :dry:


Btw.. I noticed on QXL that you are bidding on a 040 card? Have you bought an Amiga 1200?

No, I haven't. I just saw the card in an auction that was a few days old and hadn't had any bids on it yet. So I just put in a bid so I'd get it if nobody else wanted it. Someone did, though.

[Harrison]

I'm glad it is starting to feel a bit better. It's going to take some time to completely heal though, but at least once the initial pain has gone you can start to do more things again.

It is hard regarding a career. I know how hard it was before for you and the trouble you had with your old employer, so finally getting into a job you feel comfortable in is good.

The thing is, do many people actually end up in the career they originally dreamed of? I don't think that many people are that lucky. You have to just find something you are good at that earns enough money to be happy living. Although when you start to lose digits I think you would automatically start to question things. It's a hard one though as jobs are not as easy to find these days compared to even 10 years ago. Back then I walked into my first design job practically straight from University without any problems. I doubt that would be the case leaving University these days.

[TiredOfLife]

Your probably right.
We often have temp staff on minimum wage, doing menial jobs, who have degrees in decent subjects.

[Teho]

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s37/Tallhill/DSCI0264-medium.jpg


http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s37/Tallhill/DSCI0274-medium.jpg


And there is the end-result. Funny how nice it looks allready after less than three months. Amazing how quickly it's been healing, even considering that it didn't heal so well to begin with.

If you remember in the original post, the doctor who first treated it used the still whole underside of the fingertip to fold over the wound on top and stitching it there, hoping it'd grow nicely there. Well it didn't. That entire part just went black, and when my doctor removed the stitches a couple of weeks later the entire part that had been folded back was just dead. So there was nothing for it but to have another operation and fix things. This time they took the time to prepare better, taking some x-rays of it first so they could decide exactly what to do this time around. Those also revealed several small bone-fragments still in there that you really can't fault them for not seeing during the original emergency procedure.

Anyway, they ended up cutting away everything that hadn't healed, stitching what they could together and left it to heal with an open wound at the end of it. And removed those fragments they found. They discussed transplanting a small patch of skin to cover the wound, but decided in the end it was unnecessary. And this time it did heal properly, and healed fast too. The stitches were removed in early december, and by mid-december the remaining wound was so small I no longer needed to bandage it. And by Christmas it looked like it does now.

But while the actual wound has healed, there are still a lot of damaged nerves in there. I don't really notice it normally any more, but touching the end is still painful and the tip can be aching sometimes. This is what is just going to take time. Eventually those severed nerves will harden and stop being painful, but there's no real telling how long as that differs a lot from case to case. I've been back at work since newyear's, but not working full capacity. Not been out doing any real work, but have been at the office instead helping out there. Which mostly has translated to doing the boring stuff nobody else wants to do, like sorting the archives and such. :dry:

Fortunately that's over now, I'll be fully back to work proper starting next week. Hopefully this won't be a problem, and really I don't think it will be as for the most part I use my hand normally now without having to mind the thumb that much.

So, all's well in the end. This time. Next time it'll be the entire hand, or an arm or something. Maybe I really should quit this job.. ;)

[v85rawdeal]

I actually just felt physically queasy when I read that.

Give me over-the-top schlock horror and gore anyday, rather than the real thing!

[Sharingan]

That's a good chunk of thumb gone!

Glad it's healing well though. It's funny, in the past I probably would've felt queasy reading and seeing this, but after having had surgery myself recently, things like blood and gore don't really affect me much anymore.

[toomanymikes]

That is one mean wound man! You were saying about the nerves - I cut a big slice into my finger right down to the bone about a year and a half ago and it still feels funny now and again but it definately gets better over time. My GF is a nurse and she says it looks like its healing really well considering what your poor thumb has went through! ;)

[Buleste]

Wonder if you could get a thumb extension so you can use a joypad again? Mostly man part machine it's ROBOTHUMB.

[Teho]

Rise of The Robot Finger again, is it? :lol:

Not to worry though, it turns out I can still use a joypad just fine. ;)


That is one mean wound man! You were saying about the nerves - I cut a big slice into my finger right down to the bone about a year and a half ago and it still feels funny now and again but it definately gets better over time. My GF is a nurse and she says it looks like its healing really well considering what your poor thumb has went through! ;)

Yes, that's exactly what everyone's been telling me, that it's been healing very well all things considered. Only the nerves will take a while to fully mend, and that they may not heal completely. May notice it every now and then for the rest of my life, but it's a small price in the end. Could've been a lot worse.

[TiredOfLife]

Nasty, didn't realise how much you had lost.
Glad it's improving for you though.

[Harrison]

It definitely looks like it is healing well, and you must be much happy now that you are finally back at work. As you say, you were really lucky. Lets hope there is no next time!

[J T]

Yes, I really hope there is no next time for poor Teho. Still, at least it's healing up well.

[Buleste]

Whats the word on the bets for the next accident Teho has? Any odds calculated for ***** injuries yet?

As i'm not allowed to put the scientific word for male genetalia i'll just put knob.

[J T]

Or you could've put cock.

[TiredOfLife]

Dick?

[Submeg]

trouser snake?

[toomanymikes]

Shlong?
Pecker?
Root?

[Demon Cleaner]

Wiener.

[Buleste]

Pork sword. Which actually could be appropriate if Teho tries to cut something else off with a saw as then it'd be a slice of pork sausage.

[Harrison]

Poor Teho, I don't think he will ever be allowed to forget his misfortune. I think we should send him a link to the pot noodle advert as a warning to him to be extra careful in future!

[Teho]

Have I ever mentioned how greatly I appreciate your concern for my well-being? It's touching, really. :dry:

[Buleste]

We only take the piss because we care........ And we're glad it wasn't one of us.;)

[Teho]

I know, I was just being sarcastic. ;)

[Buleste]

So was I....I am really glad that it didn't happen to me though. I must be more attatched to my thumb than you... Sorry bad pun.

[toomanymikes]

:lol::lol::lol:

[v85rawdeal]

Now... if we could all sing along...


Isn't it awfully nice to have a [insert scientific word for male reproductive organ]?
Isn't it frightfully good to have a dong?
It's swell to have a stiffy.
It's divine to own a dick,
From the tiniest little tadger
To the world's biggest prick.

So, three cheers for your Willy or John Thomas.
Hooray for your one-eyed trouser snake,
Your piece of pork, your wife's best friend,
Your Percy, or your cock.
You can wrap it up in ribbons.
You can slip it in your sock,
But don't take it out in public,
Or they will stick you in the dock,
And you won't come back.